The Brain Tumor Program of the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery monitors a number of measures in its ongoing commitment to the quality of care it gives to patients. These measures include the volume of procedures done, average length of hospital stay and survival and mortality rate.

Craniotomy Procedures

To treat a patient who has a brain tumor, a neurosurgeon must usually perform a craniotomy. This is a type of brain surgery in which a piece of bone is temporarily removed from the skull to give neurosurgeons access to the brain. When the procedure is done, the bone is usually replaced using titanium plates, screws, wires or other methods of keeping the bone in place.

The graphs below reflect the number, average length of stay and mortality rate for craniotomies performed at Cedars-Sinai. The length of stay and mortality is compared to the expected values, based on data submitted by UHC hospitals. UHC is an alliance of 120 academic medical centers and 301 of their affiliated hospitals representing the nation's leading academic medical centers. The majority of these facilities participate in the Clinical DataBase/Resource Manager. Most of these facilities participate in UHC's Clinical DataBase/Resource Manager. The data were assessed on April 25, 2014 based on patients discharged between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013.

Craniotomy Volumes at the Brain Tumor Program

The graph below shows the total number of craniotomy procedures performed at the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery's Brain Tumor Program. The data reflect craniotomies done for the past three years.

Average Length of Stay for Craniotomy Patients at Cedars-Sinai

The graph below compares the observed or actual number of days that a patient undergoing a craniotomy at Cedars-Sinai spent in the hospital. This is compared with the number of days a patient with a similar diagnosis, procedure, age, gender and complications is anticipated to stay in the hospital. (This is called the expected length of stay.)

Mortality Rates for Patients Undergoing Craniotomies at Cedars-Sinai

Mortality rates are the percentage of patients who underwent a procedure who died before being discharged from the hospital. The observed percent mortality is the actual percentage of patients who died following the specific procedure. The expected percent mortality is the percentage of patients who were anticipated to expire based on a similar diagnosis, procedure, age, gender and complications.

The graph below compares the observed mortality rate of craniotomy patients at Cedars-Sinai with the expected mortality rate.

A lower observed mortality rate is better than a higher one.

The graph below illustrates a mortality index (observed mortality / expected mortality) that is significantly lower than 1.0 for craniotomies performed during the past three years.

A lower mortality index is better than a higher one.

Glioblastoma (GBM) Tumors

One of the most common -- and most malignant -- of tumors that originate in the brain are glioblastoma tumors.

At the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery, patients of all ages are treated for these tumors. The distribution of patients treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for glioblastoma tumors is shown in the graph below.

Data Source: National Cancer Registry

The graph below describes the site of the glioblastoma tumors treated at the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery.

Glioblastoma (GBM) Survival Rate

The graph below reflects the percentage of adult Glioblastoma Multiform Brain Tumor patients alive by the number of months since their diagnosis. The age of a patient at the time of diagnosis is strongly correlated with survival. Therefore, the 546 Cedars-Sinai patients in this group are compared to patients across the country of a similar age.

The survival rate for Cedars-Sinai patients is higher than the national average.

Glioblastoma (GBM) Survival Rate Following the Use of Dendritic Vaccine

The graph below compares the survival rate for patients who were treated for glioblastoma multiforme brain tumors with the dendritic vaccine developed at Cedars-Sinai with research results by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). The EORTC Brain Tumour Group is an international, multidisciplinary group of neurosurgeons, neurologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and basic scientist. It conducts, develops, coordinate and stimulates research on the treatment of primary and secondary brain tumors. To this end the BTG is fundamentally based on prospective studies.